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I'm just back from a fun indy show co-promoted by F1rst Wrestling and Heavy On Wrestling (heavyonwrestling.com) featuring mostly female wrestlers at the First Avenue Nightclub in Downtown Minneapolis, Minn.. A few notes:
-Jonny Fairplay and his wife, a female wrestler Michelle Dalton (America's Top Model alum), were scheduled for the show, but a screw-up with flights led to him being pulled from the show by the promoter with compensation being given for his lost date. No announcement was made at the show despite him being advertised, although there was no sense that anybody in the crowd of about 400 was too upset by it as there was a lot of star power on the show otherwise
-The headline was Awesome Kong vs. ODB with Nara Greenwald as the special referee. Other national names included Tara (a/k/a Victoria), Miss Kitty (Jerry Lawler's ex), Daffney, Molly Holly, and Sojo Bolt. Shawn Daivari's brother also worked the show, wrestling in the opener that was interrupted by Tara who said this was a woman's show and the fans didn't come to see men. (The crowd was taunting the male wrestlers with a chant of "We want tits.") He, of course, protested Tara's interruption and ended up taking a low-blow.
-The ring announcer said Tara was "best known as" Victoria in WWE, but never said she is now with TNA and is known as Tara. Tara gave him a hard time about that later on the show when he was walking around the arena, mic still live, talking to fans and chatting with wrestlers.
-The ring announcer (Andrew) talked and talked and talked, admitting he had a lot to drink and began asking fans to buy him more. He's a regular at Minnesota indy shows and is very good at his job with a professional sounding voice, but he ended up talking so much that PWTorch columnist Bruce Mitchell couldn't help but start heckling him, which turned into a fun back and forth with him and the fans. The best part was when a fan said he's "no Jeremy Borash," and the ring announcer - a one-time indy promoter and long-time ring announcer - had no idea who Borash was. When someone imitated Borash's voice in an effort to try to ring a bell, he shouted back that he can't do a British voice. Nobody quite knew what he meant, but in context it was pretty funny.
-A bikini contest was held featuring several women the promoter knew in his hometown who had no connection to wrestling. The ring announcer let a fan in the crowd pick the winner. Yes, a fan, randomly chosen apparently from the crowd.
-Former AWA ring announcer from the mid-1980s, Mick Karch, was present and did commentary with former TNA manager and office worker Mortimer Plumtree. Tara joined them on commentary for the main event. Jason Powell of prowrestling.net was also at the show.
-Most of the women on the show were signing autographs for fans and selling merchandise and pictures before, during, and after the show.
-DVDs are now available of the Sean Waltman vs. Jerry Lynn match at the same venue taped last month.
-Most of the women on this show, if not all, are working an indy show by the same promoter on Saturday night.
-I believe, based on a date on a display on a wall inside First Ave., it was the 25th Anniversary this past week of Prince's "Purple Rain" being filmed in the nightclub. A list too long to do justice to of big-name bands over the years has played at First Ave. including personal favorites Radiohead, Blur, Steve Earle, and Garbage (the latter three of which I saw there live; Radiohead I've seen three times, but at bigger venues later in their career).
-Thanks to the readers who introduced themselves to me, including a former roommate of the producer of my radio show back on KFAN in the early-1990s. It's always great to put a face to the name of the subscribers, although I'm terrible about forgetting the names by the end of the show (but I remember a Nick and Rich, I think, so hi!).
-It's also cool when wrestlers come up to me afterward and tell me how they first subscribed to the PWTorch Newsletter back when they were a teenager or used to call in to my radio show or, as one wrestler told me, has listened to the Scott Hall "Torch Talk" over and over on some of his road trips with other wrestlers, and has adopted some of Hall's witticisms from the interviews as part of his vernacular with other wrestlers. Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.
